


Family

by NeverlandHeart



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: M/M, Welters Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 13:51:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14750081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverlandHeart/pseuds/NeverlandHeart
Summary: Quentin reflects on the love he feels on one of the most important days of his life. My submission for the welters challenge.





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission for the welters week four challenge for the theme love.

Quentin used to think that real love was one very specific thing. That there was only one way to perceive it, to feel it. He doesn’t think that now. Not anymore. Not while he’s looking around the room at all his friends. Some, his best friends. Some, barely friends at all. But all? All, he loves. His heart swells for all of them in different ways. He used to believe that love was a willingness to die for someone. 

Looking at Eliot, he knows that it isn’t true. It is, in a way, because Quentin would die for this man in a heartbeat, but it also isn’t. Sometimes love is willing to die with someone, and sometimes its promising to live on without them. Quentin used to think that he would never be able to live without Eliot, but he knows he’s wrong now. Life would never be as full, or as beautiful or warm, but life would go on. And so would he. Because love isn’t just dying for someone, love is carrying on with the promise to never stop remembering. And as he looks at Eliot, he’s worried for a moment that he might faint, which the older man would absolutely kill him for him. But he can’t help it, because Eliot is so beautiful. Eliot is the sun and the moon. And he makes him lightheaded in ways he never thought possible. And now, as Eliot stands in front of him, Quentin can’t help but think of what would have happened if Eliot wasn’t the one to greet him on that fortieth first day at Brakebills. Luckily he’ll never have to figure it out. He can’t take his eyes off him, probably won’t ever be able to. He loves Eliot in the way that he sees fireworks when they kiss, gets butterflies when he just looks at him, and feels like his heart is going to burst out of his chest. Eliot is the way he used to think that real, true love worked. 

He looks beside him where Julia is smiling at him, tears pooling in her eyes and his heart swells even further. Julia, who had lost so much at such a young age. Who had been hurt in ways that will never truly fade. Julia, his best friend. The one who sacrificed everything for all them, and he thinks, if it wasn’t for her, none of them would be here right now. His love for Julia is like an ocean. It’s vast and complicated but it’s so beautiful. She’s been through so many terrible things and yet, she’s the most selfless person he knows. Julia is power, pure magic, but she’s also delicate in a way he can’t explain, probably won’t ever be able to. And as she reaches out to briefly squeeze his hand, he remembers the first day he met her. When he squeezes her hand back, he makes a silent vow to thank whoever assigned them as lab partners in sixth grade. 

And Margo, who is standing behind him. His love for her is a fierceness he never knew he had in him. Margo, with her never ending wit and beauty. Margo makes him stronger, she brought out his bravery and helped him harness it. When he had first met her, he didn’t see her as anything more than a party girl, but now he’s seen the person underneath all the booze and partying. Layer by layer he got know her. And now he gets to see her for what she truly is. A leader. A King. Margo is somebody who would die for someone she loves in a split second, and wouldn’t regret it after. He tries to picture his life without her in it. And he can’t. 

Kady, who’s standing next to Julia, tough, resilient, Kady. His love for her is almost like a worry. They’ve had to drag her out of the dark so many times. Sometimes she came willingly, sometimes she came kicking and screaming. Kady has been and always will be a whirlwind of emotions, but he honestly wouldn’t prefer it any other way. Some might say otherwise, but he knows he can always rely on her to come through. Kady would die for someone she loves, but she’d kill for them first. 

His love for Alice is like forgiveness. It’s hard and sometimes almost impossible. She’s smiling at him from where she’s sitting and he gives her a small smile back. They’ll never be the same, the two of them. What she did will always be a permanent mark on their relationship. But he’ll always be grateful for her because she was the first person to make him realize that he’s worthy of love, of loving and being loved in return. She’s made selfish decisions, some worse than others, but she’s also died for them all. And even though he’ll never truly see her in the same way he did when he thought she was the love of his life, she’s important to him. Always will be. 

Penny. He almost wants to laugh, because never once did Quentin think he would ever say he loves Penny Adiyodi. But he does. It’s a complicated, hardheaded love, but it’s love. When he first met Penny, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, and he knows the feeling was mutual, and they’ll never be best friends, but they are friends, and they have a respect for each other that he can’t explain. 

Josh, ridiculous, yet lonely Josh. Quentin thinks Josh understands him on a deeper level because Quentin used to be like him, in a way. Quentin knows what it’s like to be lonely, to feel like an outcast. And his love for Josh is almost like an understanding. Knowing that Josh doesn’t feel alone anymore makes him happy, because he had a hand in it. Just like Julia had a hand in helping in him. Sometimes Josh annoys the holy hell out of him, but that’s what family does. But at the end of the day, family is family. No matter how much one family members jokes get on their nerves. 

Sweet Fen. Fen who’s beaming at him, hands on her rounded belly. His love for her is almost like a pillow. It’s soft, and comfortable. He can honestly say Fen is one of the most compassionate people he’s ever met. She may not have magic, but somehow, she still makes it. She can make anyone’s day better just by smiling at them. And he’s so grateful for her. 

And even Todd, who he’s never seen give up hope, not for a second, who’s always there to just listen, makes his heart swell. 

This is his family. They’re all different, but they all love each other. Together, they’ve walked through hell and back. He’s sure it’s not over, there will always be obstacles, but they’ll always find ways around them. Together. 

“By the power vested in me, as the High King of Fillory, I now pronounce you totally gay for each other.” 

Quentin and Eliot both give her a sharp look with no true malice and Margo smirks at them. “Sorry, had to. Husbands, I now pronounce you husbands.”

And when Eliot gently pulls Quentin by his neck to meet his lips, he’s so grateful. Not just for Eliot, for everyone. And he thinks how lucky he is to be surrounded by so many types of love. 

Eliot slowly ends the kiss, and Quentin thinks back to all the years they spent on the mosaic, how Eliot died, and how he lived on after, even if just for a few days.

Yes, he could live without Eliot. But thank the gods he doesn’t have to. 

He doesn’t have to live without any of them. Quentin is so happy that he was wrong about love. Especially now, as he stands hand in hand with his husband, heart full and beating, and all of them are clapping for the two of them. 

Yes, this is his family. And it’s one full of love.


End file.
